Food Sleuth: A Visitor's View of Dancing Rabbit

While doing a search on Dancing Rabbit and food to see what I'd come up with (OK, what I should REALLY say is "while wasting time, following my nose on the web instead of doing, oh, taxes and budgets...") I came across one of the best descriptions of Dancing Rabbit I've read (you can read it below).

The article was written by Melinda Hemmelgarn M.S., R.D. , who I learned is a clinical dietitian, advocate for sustainable food systems and 2004-2006 Food and Society Policy Fellow. She is also a newspaper columnist, and freelance writer and speaker. She has written her trademarked weekly "Food Sleuth" column for the Columbia Daily Tribune since 1989, and it now appears in a variety of publications nationwide. The "Food Sleuth" mission is to "digest" nutrition research, expose diet fraud and help consumers think beyond their plates.

You can read many of her other excellent articles here on her IATP Food and Society Page.

Food Sleuth: ‘Rabbits’ Live Simple, Sustainable Life
By Melinda Hemmelgarn
Columbia Daily Tribune
April 12, 2006


"My daughter, Hannah, gave me a choice on how I wanted to spend her sorority’s mom’s weekend at Truman State University. I could play Bunco with the other visiting mothers or tour the Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage with her “Expanding Environmental Consciousness” class. Without blinking an eye, I chose the latter.

Forty minutes after rolling out of Kirksville, we arrived in Rutledge, a rural community in northeast Missouri. Under a gray sky and cool April chill, our tour guide, Ted, explained the mission of Dancing Rabbit: To create a sustainable, socially just society that would influence the global community through education, research and example. The community strives to live efficiently, using only its fair share of Earth’s resources.

What might be described by some as a “hippie commune,” the Dancing Rabbit “bioregion” consists of 280 acres of predominantly prairie and former farmland. To re-establish native grasses and provide for a close-knit community, only 80 acres are designated for dense settlement, including homes, common areas, fruit trees and more than 15,000 square feet of organic gardens. The 25 or so inhabitants of Dancing Rabbit grow, eat and preserve local, seasonal and organic food. Many are vegetarian for ethical and environmental reasons, but it’s not mandatory.

The “Rabbits” also live “off the electrical grid.” In other words, all of their power is generated by wind and solar sources. They’re keenly aware of energy use and practice conservation and resourcefulness religiously.

Make no mistake, though: Dancing Rabbit is not a cult. Rather, it’s a community where inhabitants intentionally choose to live cooperatively and leave less of an ecological footprint than the average American.

For example, the source of all power used at Dancing Rabbit comes from renewable and sustainable sources. No fossil fuels are used for powering vehicles, heating and refrigeration. Homes are constructed with reclaimed and recycled lumber. Members give up their personal motorized vehicles and instead share three cars fueled with biodeisel and recycled vegetable oil. Rain collection provides drinking water, and wastewater is treated in constructed wetlands. Speaking of waste, Dancing Rabbit’s waste disposal systems are designed to reclaim organic matter. In other words, they make “hu-manure.”

It was after my toilet experience that I concluded Dancing Rabbit would not be for me, at least not for the long run. Much like a camping vacation, it could be fun for awhile. I decided I’d learn what I could on the tour, help with some gardening as planned and look forward to dinner back in Kirksville.

But as morning turned to afternoon, the sun broke through the clouds, and I began to better understand the appeal. Ted walked us through the village, touring warm and cozy homes, explaining how their community provided both personal space and rich human interaction. At noon, Ted’s partner Sara prepared a delicious, health-fortifying lunch of lentils, rice, soup and salad, made with a variety of just-harvested greens.

The “Rabbits” live a simple yet labor-intensive lifestyle, with pioneering energy largely devoted to survival and community building. However, members also have access to the Internet, postal service and phone. They volunteer in their wider surrounding community, too. Ted and Sara visit family on the East Coast twice a year. But they’re anxious to return home, to a sense of security, safety and place. That connection to our local environment seems missing from too many modern-day communities, Ted says.

“When you visit a different place, you should know it’s different.” He adds: “I’ve always felt safest when I’ve been sustainable.”

Back in Kirksville, dinner began with a plate of wilted pale lettuce, drenched in dressing, followed by greasy, overcooked pasta. I wondered how far the food had traveled. Hannah and I exchanged glances. We had tasted a more health-sustaining alternative, and we knew at once we wanted more."

Thanks Melinda!

Humanure, Composting Toilets, and the Big Rock Candy Mountain

Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage has been getting a lot of press lately. Journalists usually start circling a week before Earth Day, looking for an angle that hasn't been played.

This year we've accommodated them by making our composting waste system public - and all the media have turned into 6-year-olds telling poo poo jokes.

It all started with a very well-done segment called Kids Off the Grid on Nickelodeon - Linda Ellerbee's Nick News Show. As it was a show about kids living ecological lives, and is really pretty cool. DR is at the very beginning.

Boys being boys, and teenagers being teenagers, Morgan could not resist discussing our composting toilet system, and Nick News could not help repeating it.

Then, of course, Jon Stewart picked up the most, um, "colorful" segment, and ran this

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Back in Black - Kids' Earth Day
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis First 100 Days

Defecating in our drinking water is perhaps one of our culture's most curious, but least talked about, habits. Some of the reasons for composting, rather than flushing our waste are:
1. to prevent water pollution (almost 4 trillion gallons of sewage effluent are dumped into our coastal waterways each year);
2. to fertilize the soil (rich in soil nutrients, humanure can be safely recycled by thermophilic composting);
3. to protect our dwindling drinking water supplies (nearly 1/3 of all household drinking water is used to flush toilets); and
4. to enhance our health. Fertile soil not only grows great veggies, but nourishes our health and community's well-being.

Before coming to Dancing Rabbit, the only time I spent talking or even thinking about defecation was when I went backpacking in my beloved Sierra Nevada Mountains. However, even 20 years ago How to Shit in the Woods: An Environmentally Sound Approach to a Lost Art was required reading for participants on the backpacking trips I led, because it explained how to utilize the woods without endangering the water and wildlife systems. This is simply the next step, to be used in one's day-to-day life instead of just two weeks a year while on vacation.

We've all become so inured to NOT talking about our waste (it's simply not polite!) that we are ruining our drinking water and the planet with our wasteful, thoughtless ways. It's time to get over the "icky" factor and find out what is really going on.

To learn more about composting waste, I highly recommend two books.



First, The Toilets Papers, Recycling Waste and Conserving Water by Sym Van Der Ryn. It is an informative, inspiring, and irreverent look at how people have dealt with their wastes through the centuries. In a historical survey, Van der Ryn provides the basic facts concerning human wastes, and describes safe designs for toilets that reduce water consumption and avert the necessity for expensive and unreliable treatment systems. The Toilet Papers provides do-it-yourself plans for a basic compost privy and a variety of graywater systems.

The Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure by Joe Jenkins is the book than many of the Dancing Rabbit systems are based upon. It provides detailed scientific information on how humanure can be hygienically recycled, without fancy technological do-dads, a large bank account, toxic chemicals, or environmental pollution. This unique handbook provides information on composting, soil fertility and microorganisms, alternative graywater systems and much more. It also gives detailed instructions on how you can build your own sawdust toilet and compost bins for only a few dollars.

So there you go. More poop than you ever expected to find here. Let me know if you have any questions!

Cob Rocket Stove, or, The Secret Life of Ziggy

Kurt and I see Ziggy a lot through our windows during the day. We never really know where he's going (unless he stops in at our house, and we know that he's there...) or what he's up to. And he's always up to something.

The other day we saw him go by with a long pink scarf wrapped jauntily around his neck. This being Dancing Rabbit, we're used to all sorts of sartorial splendor, but found it a bit unusual for Ziggy. Red union suit? Certainly. But we'd never seen any scarf action.

Checking out his photos on Flickr today, it all became clear. Ziggy's building his rocket stove.

It looks like Mark of Red Earth Farms is helping out, and I imagine that he is the one who took the photo, above. But DO check out the Ziggy's pictures - his whole house is a lovely dream crafted out of straw, clay and sand.

All Dogs (and rocks) Go to Heaven

I am not savvy enough to get the photos here on the page, but wanted to share something that came in my email today. Click here for a giggle.

Poisons on Pets: Health Hazards from Flea and Tick Products

Cats are the ultimate narcissists. You can tell this by all the time they spend on personal grooming. Dogs aren't like this. A dog's idea of personal grooming is to roll in a dead fish. ~James Gorman

I was catching up on one of my favorite blogs, The Good Human and found this post about Toxic Chemicals Found in Flea Control products. I knew the stuff was gnarly, but somehow put it out of my mind. It was with great trepidation that I opened the link to Green Paws , a site by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and looked at their Product Guide. I was relieved to learn that the flea/tick protection I use on Baloo, Frontline Plus, is not in the most toxic category. It is not ideal, by any means. But he's 11 years old, has ehrlichiosis (a debilitating, recurring tick-born disease), and loves to be outside, especially in the summer - playing with the kids, swimming in the ponds, and rolling in dead things. Frontline Plus protects him from the zillions of ticks, and in the end keeps him healthier.

A delighted Cole and a very patient Fionn.

Cats

There is, incidentally, no way of talking about cats that enables one to come off as a sane person. -~Dan Greenberg

We don't put any sort of flea/tick preventative on Fionn MacCool - he's an indoor cat, and doesn't seem to be troubled by fleas. Another thing that helps is that we brush him almost daily, spring though fall. Not only does he love it, but this keeps our house from becoming a hair farm and lets us see if there are fleas.

Perusing the Product Guide I was horrified by just how many products are toxic to cats. Anything with Permethrin (causing muscle tremors, seizures, salivation, vomiting and even death) or Pyrethins (signs of pyrethin poisoning may include coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, runny or stuffy nose, chest pain or difficulty breathing) should not be used.

Do NOT use essential oils on cats - no Pennyroyal, Tea Tree, Citronella, Eucalyptus, Lavender, Geranium or Rue Oil. It is toxic, and can kill them.

Do NOT use flea collars intended for dogs on cats.

To learn more, please see the Green Paws Toxic Fact Sheet

City Mouse vs. Country Mouse

No, not a new bouffant 'do, just a slept-upon set of bangs and a comfortable but non-glamourous pony tail. Not enough sleep, either. They're doing construction on the room upstairs; they start at 6:30 a.m. and don't stop until I call and yell at 8:30 p.m. Go figure!

Gloria Steinem said, "Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else."

But of course right now this minute I need to dash out of the hotel and get my buns down to Union Station.

It's been interesting to be back in the city again. I had forgotten just how overwhelming it is to be here, how all of one's senses are bombarded all day long. Some of the bombarding is a pleasure - aromas from fresh brewed coffee, a pizza place or Indian restaurant as I stroll by. But after awhile it all seems like TOO MUCH!

I'm headed back to my little house on the prairie, where I can tell that spring is coming by the bits of green popping up through last year's brown grass, the return of the peepers, and the randiness of the robins. Soon, the male goldfinches will turn from drab gray to bright yellow, the forsythia will bloom, and then the violets and morels.

At night, I can look at the stars, all ten zillion of them. My view here is lovely - from the 21st floor I can see Lake Michigan, the river, and lots of cool buildings. But it's time to go home.

I'll write more when I get there - so much to tell!

Dancing Rabbit Revolution

The final three-day section of our annual retreat ended last Sunday (whew!), smack dab in the middle of a discussion of Goals and Priorities. That evening a group of us gathered to watch HBO’s miniseries “John Adams” (via NetFlix). I found the contrast between the two both interesting and just a tad ironic.


Perhaps it is the way that history was presented to me, or perhaps it is just the way I took it in. But when I originally learned about the colonies making the break from King George and England it all seemed rather dry and, well, not such a big deal. The revolution came across more like: let’s throw some tea off a ship, meet in Philadelphia, write a really cool document and sign our names in big letters. “Revolution” was just a song by the Beatles.


What I’m beginning to understand is that the founding fathers (and the many women, who, though behind the scenes, were incredibly influential and important) were literally risking their lives in order to fulfill their dreams of a better way of government and a better way of life.Am I comparing the founding of Dancing Rabbit to the founding of the United States? Well, perhaps, but only in the most superficial way. What we’re doing here at Dancing Rabbit is neither life-threatening nor treasonous, and it doesn’t involve breaking any laws. I’ve certainly never felt as eloquent as Thomas Jefferson or Thomas Paine while crafting a proposal to present to the group. We are, however, making a huge values-shift from “the American Dream,” are utilizing ecological principles, and prioritizing goals other than “bigger is better.”


Which brings us right back to Dancing Rabbit’s 2009 Goals and Priorities. The G&P topic has been an ongoing process, and over the years we’ve tried various ways to approach it. By setting Goals and Priorities as a group, we are agreeing (by consensus) to put our energy and focus towards these issues. Here are some examples of what we’re probably going to tackle in 2009: revamping The March Hare, our quarterly newletter; building roads on Main Street and West Road, alloting time to handle a crisis, because one invariably arises; nurturing the thousands of trees that we have planted in our CRP bottomland; and support of a conflict resolution committee. When combining those tasks with the myriad of other tasks involved in daily living – building/maintaining a house, planting and harvesting a garden, rasing children, earning a living, maintaining relationships with friends and loved ones – the list seems almost reasonable and do-able.


Unfortunately, that is only a smidgen of what is proposed to be on our plate this coming year. There are also the items (website overhaul; village-wide graywater; a design of the DR entrance and parking area; preparing for media exposure; and putting together a building committee) that have only limited support. No one is saying that they aren’t important; however, we’re all spread pretty thin.


And then there are the items that we would dearly love to consider but simply have neither the time or energy for: visitor housing; a constitutional convention to make sure all of our founding documents are in order and support each other; a more vibrant visitor program; a better way to handle our landfill trash; and viable alternatives to biodiesel.


Being an idealist has never been an easy task. I take comfort in knowing that it took two long years (1774-1776) of meeting, discussing, trust-building and compromising for the Continental Congress to create the Declaration of Independence – after that they still had a war to fight. Here at Dancing Rabbit we will continue our meetings; our “war” is, thankfully, non-violent and largely idealogical. We will continue to live our lives the best ways we know how, as lightly as possible, and to share what we’ve learned with others. If you’d like to join us, please do – we’ve got a seat waiting for you in our next meeting!